102253: The imam and muezzin are alternating in leading the prayer and giving the adhaan (call to prayer)

May Allah bless you! My question is regarding an imam and mu’adhin who are in charge of a masjid. They alternate roles sometimes. The imam comes for Isha and Fajr prayer to call for the prayer and lead the congregation as well. The mu’adhin then comes for the ‘asr and maghrib prayer to do the same. They both come together for dhuhr prayer. This masjid is located in a military unit. The number of worshippers is very big at dhuhr time, and very small at the rest of the prayers. There is no place to live beside this masjid, and the distance between the imam and mu’adhin’s home is about 8 kilometers. What is the ruling on this, and what is your opinion about the salary they take for this?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Firstly:

There is nothing wrong with one who has been appointed to
give the adhaan, lead the prayers or supervise a waqf delegating someone
else to do these tasks, if there is a need to do so and if the person
appointed is qualified to do the job properly.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him)
said:

Whatever the case, appointing someone else to do these jobs
that are to be done in a certain manner is permissible, even if the person
who established the waqf did not allow that, provided that the one who is
appointed is like the one who appoints him, and there are no negative
consequences that will result from that. End quote.

Al-Subki favoured the view that it is permissible to appoint
someone else to lead the prayers, teach and do any other task that may be
delegated to someone else, even if the person who established the waqf did
not give permission for that, provided that the person appointed meets or
surpasses the conditions stipulated by the one who established the waqf, and
that the one who appoints the second person is entitled to the stipend. And
he (al-Subki) regarded as flawed the fatwa of al-Nawawi and Ibn ‘Abd
al-Salaam that says that neither of them is entitled to this stipend, the
one who appoints someone else to take his place, because he is not doing the
job directly, or the one who is appointed, because he does not have the
permission of the guardian of the waqf.

Then he quoted the objections of some of the Shaafa’is to
al-Subki, then he said:

There may be an exemption where it is allowed, when
appointing someone who equally or more qualified, for a reason, on the basis
that custom allows delegating tasks to others. End quote.

Secondly:

From the words of the fuqaha’ it may be understood that there
are some conditions which must be met in order for it to be permissible to
delegate someone else to do these tasks:

1 – Appointing someone else should be done because of some
need for the original person to be absent, and it should not be a regular
practice from which he hopes to earn money. It is common for many people to
take on more than one job and then delegate some of these jobs to others to
do it for a lower wage, so that they can take the rest.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in al-Ikhtiyaaraat
al-‘Ilmiyyah (p. 257): Among those who consume people’s wealth
unlawfully are people who have income from jobs that is many times greater
than what they need, and there are people who have many tasks with high
wages, but they appoint others to do these tasks for them for low wages.

We have an imam who has taken on the role of imam in three
mosques in the name of his sons, but they live outside the city, so he has
brought in workers to the lead the Muslims in prayer in those mosques
instead, in return for half of the salary.

He replied:

That is not permissible, rather it is a bad deed. It is not
permissible for a Muslim to lie to the authorities with regard to leading
the prayers or giving the call to prayer by naming an imam or muezzin who is
not present, then appointing someone else to do that task. Rather he should
explain the situation to the authorities so that they may approve of the
person whom he has appointed. End quote.

2 – The task in question should be one that is suited to
having another person appointed to do it, such as leading the prayers or
giving the call to prayer. As for acting as a judge or issuing fatwas, these
tasks cannot be delegated to someone else, because when a mufti or qaadi is
appointed, the appointment is for a specific person, and no one can take the
place of the person appointed by the authorities to do that job.

3 – The one who is appointed should be qualified and fit for
the task.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was asked:

I am a muezzin and sometimes I appoint someone else to give
the adhaan; should I give him some payment for the time when he does the
adhaan in stead of me?

He replied:

Firstly: Why do you delegate this task when you are the
muezzin who has been appointed to give the adhaan?

Questioner: Because of necessity.

Shaykh: If it is a matter of necessity, there is nothing
wrong with that, but that should only be on one or two days of the month,
for example, and you should not give him anything, because custom does not
permit that. If he tells you that he wants something then give him
something, but he should not say “I want something” because this is an act
of worship. End quote.

Liqa’ al-Baab il-Maftooh (no.
234, question no. 5).

4 – He should ask the authorities and the people in the
mosque for permission.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was asked about an imam of a mosque who
did not come to pray, and he delegated the muezzin of the mosque to lead the
people in prayer. He said: We should ask this imam why he is staying away
when he has been appointed as the imam and has taken on this commitment.

It is not permissible for the imam to fail to attend any
obligatory prayer except for what acceptable according to custom, such as
one or two obligatory prayers in a week, or if he has a job and cannot help
being away from the mosque at the time of Zuhr prayer, and he tells the
person in charge of awqaf and the congregation approves of that, in which
case there is nothing wrong with it.

In other words, three conditions should be met if he
regularly stays away, such as in the case of Zuhr prayer for someone who has
a job:

·
He should seek permission from
the person in charge of awqaf,

·
He should seek permission from
the local people – the congregation,

·
And he should appoint someone
who is qualified whether it is the muezzin or someone else, because he may
appoint someone who is not qualified to lead the prayers, and this is
neglecting the trust.

Based on the above, it seems that there is nothing wrong with
the way in which the imam and the muezzin have agreed to perform one
another’s duties in this mosque, as both of them are qualified to give the
adhaan and lead the prayers, and that is due to necessity as the house of
one of them is far away and the number of worshippers is few, and because
the aim is to establish prayer among the people in the manner required.

But that should be after seeking permission from the people
in charge and the congregation of the mosque, as stated above.